Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes Review

Dawn Of the Planet Of the Apes (directed by Matt Reeves) is an outstanding Summer Blockbuster. It is nothing like the stereotypical blockbuster (lots of blowing up, but with poor acting and story. If that’s what you want go see Transformers: Age of Extinction.) This movie is emotionally wrenching and has very, very good effects. Jason Clarke was excellent as Malcolm, who was the main protagonist (besides a motion capture Casaer). Keri Russell, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Gary Oldman all boasted strong supporting performances. Andy Serkis was also mind-blowing once again as Caesar, the lead ape. Serkis and the advanced technology used were able to turn a man and his expressions into the mannerisms of an ape. Motion capture is a giant step from CGI showing more realistic figures. Andy Serkis is an amazing motion capture actor and plays iconic roles in popular movies, but is still not well known. If you aren’t familiar with him, he played Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Dawn takes place in 2026, which is ten years after Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Most of humanity has been wiped out by the Simian Flu which is a disease created in a lab in Rise. The Apes have taken over the San Francisco woods north of the city. The apes prosper and have a great ruler, Caesar, one day a human shows up to their base and it goes downhill from there. Peace is temporarily brought by Malcolm, but that doesn’t last long as you can see in the trailer. Serkis and Clarke’s chemistry was outstanding, the entire time you believed that two characters of a different species found trust in each other. Most, if not all elements of this movie are perfect and it is definitely worth a look.